Not All It's Quacked Up To Be
by RedRyder26
Summary: When an adventure goes ary, the Duck boys are pulled into another universe. Well, they're pretty sure it's another universe. Now, they just have to figure how to get home.
1. TheCave

**Disclaimer: I want to give credit where credit is due. I don't own Ducktales or it's characters,**** nor did I create any of the headcannons I borrowed. Only the story and a few OCs are mine.**

Louie tried to tune out the chattering around him while he waited for the plane to "land." Huey was making it more difficult by shooting him concerned looks every few minutes. He sunk deeper into his seat and fiddled with his phone.

So Donald and Della had been fighting again, so what? Yeah, It was loud and angry. But that was why Uncle Scrooge had decided to take them on this stupid trip in the first place.

It **had** been a while since it was just the kids and Uncle Scrooge on an adventure. Well, actually Launchpad was there too, but he was practically a kid himself.

Scrooge had said something about a cave below the temple of Cha- Ka... something or other. It was supposed to be a simple matter of finding and claiming some lost treasure or artifact. There was gold involved so Louie was content knowing that much.

It started like any other adventure. Plane crash. Scrooge prattling on about how great this discovery would be. Dewey bounding ahead bursting with excitement, Webby right by his side. Huey was reading something from his precious guidebook about the wise king who had built the temple above them. And Louie was mostly just along for the ride, waiting for the envidiable catastrophe the followed each and every adventure.

After way too much walking they reached a large and mostly empty chamber. Webby let out an excited squeal. Louie jumped before managing to regain his relaxed appearance. Apparently there was some intricately carved dead language on the walls. Webby and Scrooge poured over it.

"What's it say?" Dewey was never particularly patient when it came to this kind of thing.

"It seems to be talking about some sort of a... Soul reflector? What do you think Uncle Scrooge?" Webby asked, as she turned to look at the old adventurer.

"Somthin' like that, Aye. Although perhaps Soul Mirror is a better translation." He responded, sounding deep in thought.

"Cool! Wait! What if we have to fight our soul selves to get to the treasure? What color do you think my soul is?" Dewey asked excitedly.

"I don't really think that's how this works." Huey said shaking his head.

There was more back and forth conversation about the implications of the inscription but Louie was getting bored. By this point they'd spent a good 20 minutes staring at a wall with ancient chicken scratch trying to figure out how some dumb Soul Mirror worked. He'd played all the games he wanted to on his phone and there was zero reception down here.

Dewey had been bounding around the chamber all the while and Huey was doing his very best to keep an eye on him. Even though the age difference between them was small (three seconds), Huey took his job as the oldest brother very seriously.

Louie stretched and shuffled towards them, they were partially obscured by the pointy rocks sticking out of the ground. Stalag something's, Huey'd know what they were called.

Wandering deeper into the large chamber, he looked around for anything that might give him some clues to where treasure was hidden.

While Louie had yet to see anything really useful, he did spot an oddly shaped stone. It was sitting on the ground and didn't look like it was attached to any death traps. Hesitantly he picked it up and held his breath. He glanced around, no danger yet. So far so good.

He examined it. He'd guess it was Sapphire. It's carving held a lot of detail, and although Louie couldn't tell what animal it was supposed to be, he guessed that it would be worth a pretty penny online.

As he put the statuette into his pocket, Dewey approached with Huey not far behind.

Before Huey could lecture him about wandering off on his own, Dewey was pushing past Louie to inspect the wall.

"Guys look! I think it's a secret door." Dewey said, already searching for a way to open the door. It really did look like a there might have been a door there. Huey, ever the sensible one, said:

"We should tell Uncle Scrooge about..."

"GOT IT!" Dewey cheered. He pushed on the door, nothing happened.

Disappointed, Dewey tried again. He put all his strength into it, but still the door remained where it was.

"Stupid thing!" Dewey kicked the door. He yelped. Huey inspected the door as Dewey tried to rub the pain away.

"It looks like you need some sort of key to open it." Huey said as he gestured to a small socket in the door.

"Well what are we waiting for?" Dewey said, and began to search the immediate area. Huey too began to look. Louie offered a simple:

"I'll keep an eye on the door, just in case." It was met with eye rolling and grumbled acceptance. He examined the unusual key slot in the center of the door. It looked a little like an animal. And it struck him, the stone! He still had it in his pocket. After a quick glance to check that his brothers were still occupied, he slipped the stone out. He'd see if it fit the opening, if it didn't then his brothers didn't need to know that he had it, if it did fit he'd have been the one to find it. It was a win-win scenario.

It slid into place with a click. The door began to rumble and started sliding inwards. Louie backed away.

"Uh, guys?" They hurried to join him. "Maybe we should get Uncle Scrooge."

Huey nodded, looking wide eyed as the door seemed to disappear behind a ripple of what looked like water. The liquid was pale blue and shimmery. Moving like waves in a gentle breeze. The strangest thing was that the water seemed contained in the doorway.

"Woah." Dewey breathed, reaching out a hand to touch the watery stuff. Huey yanked him back.

"Junior Woodchuck rule #64 'When dealing with the unknown, proceed with caution.' Besides we should probably let Uncle Scrooge and Webby know where we are, Webby would be pretty mad at us if we found the Soul Mirror and didn't tell her." Dewey huffed and crossed his arms, but didn't make another move towards the door. Louie was going to count that as a win.

Louie turned to go back, only to run into Huey, who apparently had moved was now directly be hind him. The youngest duck stumbled and fell backwards. Huey scrambled to try and grab him, Managing to catch his sleeve. For a few precious seconds, Louie was leaning precariously close the the rippling doorway. The with a loud rip, the hoodie sleeve gave way.

Right before his head endeared the water, Louie caught a glimpse of Huey and Dewey making a mad grab for him. Then everything was muffled and bright and Louie couldn't see. He could feel something pulling on his arm, as something else was pulling on his foot. Keeping him from being completely swallowed by the blinding blue.

He could breath, so it wasn't water. And for a second he was a little calmer. But then he tried to move, and he couldn't. Louie tried to squash down the panic. _No, no, no, no, no! Not like this! _He shut his eyes tightly, not that it made much difference. _Focus on breathing. That's it. Just breathe. _He told himself.

He couldn't be sure, but it felt like he was sinking in the stuff now. If it hadn't been so terrifying it would have been almost pleasantly silent.

Harsh ripples ran through the stuff and Louie felt the rest of his body being sucked in. With startling clarity, he realized that he could be dying. Boy he really hopped not.

Rational thoughts got harder and harder. He was slipping into unconciousnes. He stopped panicking, and began to just drift.


	2. TheHouseboat

Chapter Two, The Houseboat

Dewey watched in horror as Louie stumbled backwards into the goopy sludge. Huey somehow managed to catch him by his hoodie, but given how worn the thing was, the sleeve ripped pretty quickly.

Then he was diving forward, grabbing his little brother's foot and trying to stop him from disappearing completely.

"Not today sludge monster!" He yelled at the goop as he and Huey struggled to try and pull him back.

At first it seemed like they were winning. Then the stuff made an awful squelching, gurgling sound, sort of like the sound a wet paper bag full of slime makes when it gets stuck in the bathtub drain. Before he knew it, Louie was completely swallowed up, dragging him and Huey in too.

"Uncle Sc..." Their yell for help was cut short. Once surrounded by the stuff, Dewey realized he couldn't see very well, or hear really anything. The silence was suffocating.

He tried to move in the direction he assumed his brothers to be, before quickly realizing that he couldn't move. He squirmed harder. He was getting sleepy. This only made him fight harder to move. Come on, there's...got to be...a way...to...to...

\--

Dewey woke up with a start, quickly struggling against the goop that held him fast. Only to realize that he wasn't in goop anymore, he was in bed. He only came to this realization after he and the blanket he had been wrestling with fell to the floor.

"Ow." He groaned loudly. After untangling himself from the blankets, he looked around a little disoriented. He was in PJs... Back on the houseboat?

He rubbed his eyes. Yes, definitely the houseboat, he could feel the waves rocking the boat lightly. The room wasn't how he remembered it last, but he didn't really give it much thought. After all he didn't really live here anymore anyway.

He glanced over at the window. The sun was just starting to come up outside, and the curtains were open. Dewey stuck his head out the window. Huh, he was at the marina.

Well now he was really confused. The last thing he could remember was being in a cave under some temple ruin. Louie and Huey! I knew I was forgetting something.

He rushed over to the triple bunk and yanked the green blanket back, relieved when Louie was there.

"Nerh...S'cold." Louie mumbled and, with his eyes still closed, groped for the blanket.

"Louie!" Dewey whispered loudly as he shook his brother's shoulder. "Louie! Why are we on the houseboat?"

With a grumble Louie opened one of his eyes just a bit. "Huh?"

"The houseboat, how did we get here?" Dewey said, with a grand gesture to the room as if that would make it clearer. Louie still looked disinterested and sleepy.

"I dunno, ask Huey." And he grabbed the blanket from Dewey's hand and pulled it back over himself.

Clambering up the ladder, Dewey tugged on his other brother's blanket.

"Huey, Wake up. Huey, hey, Huey!" With a start Huey snapped awake and sat up, only to smack his head against the ceiling. (He was used to their room in the mansion where the ceiling was fairly high.)

Leaning back in bed, Huey rubbed his head.

"What Dewford!?" He snapped, grumpy from his sudden and painful awakening.

Too keyed up to care about his brother's annoyance, Dewey foraged ahead.

"Dude, what are we doing on the houseboat? The last thing I remember was that goopy stuff in the secret door."

Huey sat up, a bit more carefully this time, and surveyed the room. His brows drew together.

"I don't know. That's the last thing I remember too." He admitted. Then his eyes widened in fear.

"Louie?" He asked, tentatively, as if worried what the answer might be.

"Down here." Louie called, sounding less drowsy. Huey relaxed a little, and leaned over the side of the bunk to get a look at Louie.

"What's the last thing you remember Louie?" Huey asked curiously. Louie hesitated for a moment.

"Being swallowed alive by that water wall." He responded with a shudder.

If Dewey was keyed up before, he was in high gear now. This was turning into a real mystery. Sliding down the ladder he turned a critical eye on the room. Maybe there was some clue hiding around here?

He set to work searching the room. His search of the room ultimately was a bust. Although he did find more than a few items that he'd never see before, including a cool looking slingshot. Disappointed he went to join his brothers, who were both now sitting on Louie's bed.

Huey had a notepad and pen out and was writing down whatever Louie had just said. "Right, when did you find the key by the way?"

Before Louie could answer, there was a knock on the door.

"Boys?" They looked at each other. There was no mistaking it, that was Uncle Donald's voice.

Donald poked his head in, seeming content. With a smile he told them to hurry up and pack, breakfast would be ready soon. They had responded with the usual: "Yes Uncle Donald." Before he left them alone again.

"That was..." Huey began.

"Weird?"

"Awkward?"

"I was going to say 'out of character.'" Huey said, giving his brothers a look.

"Something is definitely weird about this whole," Louie gestured to the door. "Situation."

Dewey chipped in "I'm not even sure that was Uncle Donald. He seemed so... Normal." Happy. What he really meant was happy.

Huey tried to get them back on track. Asking them more questions, writing down the answers. But Uncle Donald interrupted again to let them know it was time for breakfast.

Huey stood up and tried to look chipper. "We can get back to the mystery after breakfast, after all breakfast is the most important meal of the day."

Dewey slowly shuffled after his brothers, unusual since he normally charged ahead. (Why wait when you could get somewhere twice as fast?)

He glanced briefly back at the room. Something is wrong with this place. He couldn't shake the feeling that the houseboat was a weird echo of the real thing.


	3. TheDock

Chapter Three, The Dock

Breakfast had been an interesting affair. Dewey had taken it upon himself to interrogate Donald. Donald hadn't seemed bothered by this. He almost seemed to expect it.

"What exactly are we supposed to pack for? And why are you wearing blue? What are we even doing at the Marina?"

Donald sighed as though they had discussed this a hundred times. Then he began to explain how necessary it was for him to go, and that he was already enlisted, and Uncle Scrooge would take good care of them. Huey almost choked on his oatmeal.

"Wait! Enlisted? Like in the army?" Louie suddenly gained an interest in the conversation.

"The navy." He corrected gently before making a startled quack as he looked at the clock. "I'm going to be late!" He croaked out, slurped down his food and then hastily gathered the boys half finished bowls.

He then tried to hurry to the dishwasher. There was a rather spectacular crash followed by a fight between Uncle Donald, the dishwasher door, a few dirty dishes and the towel hanging nearby. The result was nothing unusual: Broken dishes and a broken appliance, oatmeal everywhere and a grumbling, cursing Donald. At least Huey assumed he was cursing, it was hard to understand him when he got like this.

After that mess was sorted out, he pushed the boys back towards the bedroom with instructions to pack.

They stood looking at the room and each other. Louie broke the silence.

"That can't be Uncle Donald. Uncle Donald would never just...leave us." Huey moved closer to Louie in an attempt to offer some form of comfort. Obviously this situation was bothering Louie more than he pretended.

"I have a hypothesis." Huey put in. He had been considering the possibilities all morning, and this was the best explanation he could come up with.

Dewey and Louie looked at him expectantly. They wanted a logical explanation of why things felt so wrong, they were counting on him to have it. Huey swallowed his apprehension and launched into an explanation.

"It's still only a theory, but it seems possible that the temple of Chakataw is a point of entry for a small rip in the membrane that separates our existence from other similar existences. In fact scientists have been searching for years to find a way to communicate with people from..."

"Uh huh, great. Now could you try that again in English!" Louie interrupted. Huey sighed.

"I think that doorway was a way to travel to an alternative universe." That was met with a much more enthusiastic response from his brothers. Louie looked relieved. Dewey looked excited.

"Of course! So that's Uncle Donald but not our Uncle Donald. And that's why the room is so weird. I wonder what else is different here?" Dewey said, warming to the subject.

"It's just a theory." Huey cautioned. "We can't rule out other possibilities."

Louie waved his hand as if shooing away the thought. "You're usually right about this sort of stuff."

No pressure. Huey thought to himself, although what he actually said was. "We should probably pack, then we can try and talk to Uncle Scrooge about finding a way to get home."

Dewey suddenly looked a little disappointed. "But we just got here! Maybe we could do a little exploring first, then tell Scrooge?"

"You want to charge blindly into a universe we know NOTHING about, be my guest. I'm going to go home." Louie responded. Huey jumped in, trying to stall an argument.

"We should probably spend a day or two getting to know this Scrooge, after all if Uncle Donald is different here, then probably Uncle Scrooge is too. Then we can explain to him what happened and make a plan to get home." Huey's plan was enough to placate the two and put any arguments on hold for the time being.

With a plan firmly in place, Huey pulled out an old timey suitcase from under the bed and began to pack.

\--

Huey glanced over at his brothers. He had to admit, they all looked pretty silly. Getting dressed and packing had been a bit chaotic.

Louie had been unable to find any hoodies anywhere, Dewey couldn't find his T-shirt, and there weren't any polo shirts anywhere in the house boat (Red or otherwise.) In fact, it seemed the only things they owned were baseball caps and long sleeve shirts, identical in everything but the color.

Dewey had attempted to shorten one of the shirts by cutting the sleeves and now was wearing two of his blue shirts, the top one had slightly shorter jagged sleeves. Uncle Donald had tried to put the blue cap on Dewey's head, he had thrown the cap overboard. Huey couldn't really blame him, they'd spent their whole lives trying to differentiate themselves and stand out from one another. He had no desire to dress exactly like his brothers either.

Louie had gone into a full out panicked search mode and, when he'd found no hoodies, had ended up using a grayish green winter coat he found in the back of the closet. He was sweating and looked uncomfortably warm, but insisted on wearing the coat. He too rejected the hat.

Huey had gladly accepted the cap, after all 'warm head, warm thoughts.' But discovered that the long sleeves on the shirt were too hot in the summer weather. If he'd had time he might have trimmed and sewn the sleeves, instead he resorted to rolling them up as much as possible.

Uncle Donald had definitely been surprised by their attire, but had decided not to comment. He definitely seemed to be watching them more closely now.

They had set out towards the nearby dock, lugging along heavy bags full of more identical clothes and back up caps.

Huey felt naked without his Junior Woodchuck Guidebook. He had gone to reach for the JWG earlier, only to discover that it wasn't in his hat, or under his pillow, or even in the dresser. When he'd asked, Uncle Donald had seemed confused, apparently in this universe he wasn't a Junior Woodchuck. It was something of a soul crushing revelation, and he had to remind himself that he was still a Junior Woodchuck, even if he wasn't considered one here.

Louie had a similar reaction to discovering that, not only did he not have a smartphone, there was no easy way to access the internet here. He'd been moping ever since.

It was on the walk to the dock that Donald finally confronted them. "Are you boys feeling alright?" He asked, eyeing Louie's winter coat.

Huey was trying to find an appropriate response that would both calm Uncle Donald and reassure him there was nothing wrong. Instead he blurted out:

"We're perfectly fine. Nothing weird going on here. Nothing at all." Louie and Dewey both face palmed. Huey was about to try again when Dewey held his beak shut. Louie took the lead this time.

"We're fine. We'll just really miss you." Louie was incredibly convincing, so much so that Uncle Donald actually teared up and hugged him. Louie had not been expecting the hug and let out a small startled squawk.

Donald beckoned the other boys to join him and Louie. Huey hugged for all he was worth. He knew how strange they must have looked to people passing by, but he really didn't care.

No matter how much he pretended to be fine, Huey was terrified by not knowing. Not really knowing where they were, not knowing any way to get home, not knowing what was coming next. And on top of that, he didn't even have a JWG to rely on. But it was comforting to know his uncle's hugs were just as reassuring and loving here.

When Uncle Donald pulled away again, the tears were gone. "Are you boy ready?"

"Ready." Was the harmonious answer. Huey almost never liked it when they spoke in unison, but it seemed to have put a smile on Uncle Donald's face.

\--

They waited for quite awhile at the dock, Uncle Scrooge was late. And when he finally did arrive, he did not seem happy to see them. Huey remembered all too well their first encounter with their own Scrooge and wondered if gaining his trust might take a little longer than he initially thought.

As Uncle Donald bid them goodbye, Huey had to remind himself that this wasn't really his uncle. It hurt anyway.

They watched the small boat carry Donald away from the dock and towards a much larger ship. Once he was out of sight, the boys turned to Uncle Scrooge.

Dewey hefted his suitcase and looked around. "Where's the car?" He asked, not seeing the limo.

"A car? Do ya know how much those gas guzzlers cost?" He shook his head. "We're going on foot."

At Louie's groan, Scrooge was quick to say: "Not to worry, it's just a brisk 3 mile walk."

Louie groaned again. Scrooge ignored it and started walking, not even bothering to help with the luggage.

What choice did they have? They followed him. Louie was grumpy as he dragged his luggage along. Huey could hear him mimic Scrooge under his breath. "Just three miles."

Huey needed something to distract him, so he started mentally reciting the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook. He just needed to stay sane long enough to get them home. With a goal in mind, Huey felt calmer.


	4. TheMansion

Chapter Four, The Mansion

It had been an exhaustingly long walk to the mansion, and Louie had hated every minute of it. He'd tried to persuade Scrooge to just take a taxi or call his car, but the old codger was adamant that the walk would do them good. Selfish, penny-pinching, old miser.

To make the walk all the more annoying, it must have been like a hundred degrees or something. His coat probably wasn't helping matters, but there was no way he was going to admit that Huey was right and it was WAY too hot for the stupid thing. So it was a very sweaty and grouchy Louie that arrived at the mansion.

He was shaken out of his funk when Duckworth answered the door. Not ghost Duckworth, real flesh and blood Duckworth.

"Ah Duckworth, Carry the suitcases up to the room we prepared." Scrooge instructed as he walked away to who knows where.

"Of course sir." Duckworth replied, still holding the door. The boys stared at Duckworth as he passed them. Then Louie took a moment to look around him as the butler went to get the luggage. On the outside, the place looked pretty much the same. But on the inside, everything was different.

"Whoa!" Dewey marveled looking around him, then he was moving towards what looked like a pretty expensive vase. He poked it, then he had to scramble to catch it as it toppled over. Louie just rolled his eyes.

This was definitely going to take getting used to. Even the stairs were in the wrong place. The sooner they could get home the better.

"This way children." Duckworth said, catching their attention and giving Dewey a look that said 'I know what you were doing.' Dewey gave him his best innocent grin and bounded after him.

After the third flight of stairs Louie was starting to get annoyed, how high up were they going to go?!

They finally reached the tower, and Duckworth left their suitcases on some cots in the cramped tower attic. He instructed them to amuse themselves until lunchtime and left, the door clicked shut and then there was the sound of a key turning.

"I think he just locked us in the attic." Huey said, trying the door. He nodded to himself. "Definitely locked."

Dewey pouted. "It's the marbles all over again!"

Louie looked around the room. It looked like a storage room. Most of the junk had been pushed to the back wall and three foldable camping cots were squeezed into what was left of the space.

"Man, this place is a dump." He said, eyeing the bear skin rug on the floor.

"Guys! Look what I found." Dewey put in, already beginning to climb the assorted junk piles. He tugged on the edge of whatever he'd just found. As what looked like a weird wooden hook was released from the unsteady pile, the whole thing shifted forward.

Dewey jumped out of the way, narrowly missing a small chest landing on him.

"Oops." Dewey said, then added looking at the contents of the chest now scattered along the floor. "I'll clean that later." And he started climbing again, this time with the help of his newly discovered wooden hook.

Still feeling too warm and more than a little exhausted from the long walk and the climb up the stairs, Louie decided to take advantage of the only cot that didn't have a suitcase on it.

"Yeah, wake me when lunch is ready." He said stretching out on the cot.

It wasn't as comfortable as a bed, but he didn't really have other options right now. He drifted off to the sound of Dewey sorting through the junk searching for something exciting and Huey telling Dewey off for the messy execution of said searching. It was strangely comforting to know that at least that hadn't changed.

\--

1987, Louie blinked and checked to make sure he hadn't missed something. Huey had been the one to notice the date first, on a newspaper of all things. And there it was clear as day, 1987. No wonder everything was so boring here, it must have been before fun was invented.

After lunch Duckworth had let them out of the room to explore the mansion. There were so many things that were different it felt almost like a different house.

Huey was intent on cataloging the differences and Dewey was content to run from one room to another calling out when he found something that caught his eye. Louie though, was tired of wandering the mansion and decided to find the TV room. According to Huey, TV was one of the few things that did exist in the eighties.

Eventually he did find a TV, but it was not what he was expecting. It was HUGE and not in the good way. In fact he hadn't even recognized what it was at first. He was pretty sure that Scrooge had one of these Dinosaurs in their garage back home.

To his disappointment, none of the channels had any shows he recognized, so he eventually just ended up watching some program about teenaged turtles who also happened to be ninjas. He thought it seemed more like Dewey's kind of show, but TV was TV. Besides, he had dropped the remote and wasn't in the mood to find it.

At a certain point both of his brothers joined him, having done all the searching they wanted to for the day.

They stayed like that until dinner, when Duckworth had lead them to the dining room and brought them some cheese samples and hot dogs. Louie made a face, but ate the cheese.

Scrooge was nowhere to be seen. Dewey had questioned Duckworth about it but all Duckworth had said was "Mr. McDuck is a very busy man."

Louie glanced around the huge table. He may have enjoyed solitude more than either of his brothers, but he'd gotten used to dinner being a noisy family affair. Eating dinner just the three of them felt strange.

Maybe that was what they were supposed to learn, after all most of their adventures thus far had led some sort of life lesson or major realization, maybe they were supposed to learn the value of family. Louie snorted at the thought. Now he was just over analyzing. Still…


End file.
